There is something intrinsically fresh, immediate and approachable about van Gogh's sous-bois paintings, which are some of his most famous and finest works, and which beautifully capture the subtle and transient effects of light on foliage. Van Gogh: Into the Undergrowth examines the way in which van Gogh was part of the wider sous-bois tradition in nineteenth-century French painting, and explores how he used painting as a metaphor for the dynamism, vitality, and ever-changing face of nature, as presented under the forest canopy.
In addition to color plates of twenty-five artworks by van Gogh and other leading landscape painters such as Daubigny, Monet, and Gauguin, this volume presents extensive new research on van Gogh, nature, and sous-bois. There is a lead essay on van Gogh and nature by independent scholar Cornelia Homburg; Jenny Reynaerts looks at the sous-bois genre in the nineteenth century; whilst Simon Kelly examines van Gogh's relationship with the Barbizon and Impressionist schools. Laura Prins writes specifically on Cincinnati Art Museum's own late van Gogh painting, Undergrowth with Two Figures, which has recently been restored.
Laura Prins is curator of European Paintings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Simon Kelly is curator and head of department at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Jenny Reynaerts is senior curator of Eigtheenth- and Nineteenth- Century paintings at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Cornelia Homburg is curator of Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis.
